Truth be told, we wouldn’t even be very far from going blind. Let’s be honest, looking back, it’s less so. So, while the bar of 10,000 electric car sales was crossed in France only in 2014, we had to wait until 2020 for the bar of 100,000 to be reached. This figure will double in just two years. However, in 2023, 300,000 are already within range of the shot.

However, faced with this apparently comforting progression, you only need to bend over to pick up a nice handful of flats. We could start by remembering that each of these 300,000 vehicles will cost the taxpayer at least €5,000 per capita. And that, despite this abundant sponsorship, associated with non-stop proselytizing and devoid of any controversy, electric cars still account for less than two new cars sold in ten.

Photo credit: NICOLAS SOLER / ERAS

Another caveat – and a significant one – concerns the lack of diversity among the sales stars. Thus, the top 5 best-selling electrical appliances absorb almost half of the market. Among that elite, of course, were two Teslas, one of which, the Model Y, dominated the category. Also, to learn about its major facelift planned for the end of the year, go to p. 18. But behind this Tesla phenomenon, which the media rave about, we ultimately pay little attention to the second in the ranking (and even the first among individuals), Dacia Spring. However, with almost 30,000 sales in 2023, the Romanian company represented, with the exception of one cow, almost 10% of the market. A real popular success, then, but one that nonetheless didn’t save the cheapest electric car from being weaned from the sacred bonus, the equivalent of a death sentence for a car that makes a bet on its price. However, he was only a collateral victim of Bersi’s anti-Chinese protectionist reform, which, in order to make it an environmentally responsible measure, could not afford to grant special privileges. Pity the most modest, who will have to turn to “social leasing”, the number of which is currently limited to 25,000 units.

Read also:

• Why does Elon Musk feel “uncomfortable” at Tesla?
• Electric cars: a new offer for city cars
• Dacia Spring drops prices to compensate for loss of bonus